Annoying rattles from the headliner and sunroof area seem to be a pretty common occurrence with these cars, and the various fixes posted here and elsewhere and in Porsche TSBs can look pretty imposing. So I'd like to share what turned out to be a relatively easy fix for one that I've had in my car. My X50 has the extra-expensive leather headliner that had sagged at the rear previously and that I'd paid several hundred dollars to re-glue, so I was very reticent to rip the whole thing out. That and my general experience that every time I take the interior trim apart on a car something ends up breaking. This procedure only removes the parts that are absolutely necessary for the fix and nothing more.

Symptoms: Rattle seeming to come from sunroof, very bad with the roof open but also present to a lesser extent with the roof closed. The key test in this case is that pressing up on the headliner at the seam a few inches behind the sunroof would make the noise go away. Otherwise, the fault likely is elsewhere so you may be in for a more involved job completely disassembling the headliner and/or sunroof.

Root Cause: A metal rod that supports the headliner has come partially or completely unclipped and rattles in its mounting bracket with roof closed and against the recessed roof panel when when opened.

The offending item is highlighted in #6 in the FSM diagram


Resources:
I found the procedure to partially remove the headliner in this post as well as the FSM section on removing the A, B and C pillar trim most helpful.

Procedure

• Follows FSM instructions to remove top part of B pillar trim and A Pillar trim. Only the coat hooks, the aluminum bracket bolted to the top of the B pillar, and A-pillar trim needs to be removed entirely.
• All trim pieces are removed by grasping firmly and pulling toward the inside of the car, waiting for the snap of the clip disengaging.
• The B-Pillar trim does not need to be removed, only the aluminum support bracket underneath the coat hook
• Only front part of the C-pillar trim needs to be removed to allow for unhooking the headliner to access the support rod
• The sun visors, dome light, sunroof, and front and back of headliner do NOT need to be removed.
• Once the trim is off, unhook the side edges of the headliner from the plastic hooks that hold it taut
• This barely allows you the clearance to grasp the offending headliner support rod to pull forward and feel it snap back into its socket. I don't have a picture, but it sits right above the headliner seam a few inches behind the back of the sunroof.

Reassembly

• Reconnect the headliner on the sides
• Snap A pillar trim back on
• Snap C pillar trim back on
• Reinstall bracket at top of B pillar and coat hooks
• Be cognizant of the location of the trim clips, push firmly on each trim piece directly under the clip until you hear it snap into place. For the A pillar, start from the front. The location of the clips is shown below

That's it-a relatively easy, low risk fix for this particular rattle.

 

thx for posting & rep pts i knew there had to be a fix. that rattle has me tearing my hair out. i'd much rather tear out the headliner good to know there's a diagram for it. (..... **** i think my roll bars gonna get in the way. ) we shall see.

 

Thanks for sharing.
Am I reading this right that much of this would be easiest to perform if you had access to the back seat area?.......thinking of those of us who have GT3 seats, roll bars and cages.

 

About the only thing I did from the back seat was the partial unclipping of the C-pillar trim. However, if your front seats still recline a fair amount, you could do it from there as well.

 

just went to the car to attempt this armed with pics diagram etc, and..

the metal rod snapped right back into it's groove by just pushing on it. no liner removal necessary.. good thing, as i woulda messed it up anyhow.

 

GT3 seats no recline.....but I will give it a shot.....Thank you!

 

I've had this rattle for years and with GT3 Euros and bar would love an easy in-evasive fix like pushing on the headliner!

 

I have a rattle also ..mine comes when the sunroof is closed.. it goes away if I tilt the sunroof open.. drives me crazy... I might have to attempt to remove the headliner and poke around up there

 

snapping it into place? seems to have have worked! - i'll post again later once my bumpers back on and i can give it a proper shakedown.